Covering the Conclave: Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery

2 On Your Side's Maryalice Demler is in Italy covering the conclave. Here is a glimpse of some of the behind-the-scenes.

How Does One Become Pope?

How one becomes the head of the Catholic Church and spiritual leader to nearly 1.2 billion faithful can best be understood by breaking things down into two processes: the Church's hierarchy and the papal election itself. (Ed. Note: We understand that there are complexities within the Catholic Church and we are simply providing an easy to digest guide to the process.)

There are two essential requirements to become pope: you have to be a Catholic and a man. However, this does not mean that any churchgoing person of faith can be selected Supreme Pontiff. First you have to be ordained as a priest; this typically means spending several years studying in a seminary and taking vows of obedience and celibacy. Priests are typically placed in charge of their own church or parish.

Once a priest, the next step on the ladder is to become a bishop All bishops around the world are ultimately ordained by the current pope. But how does the pope get your name to make you a bishop? The Vatican has ambassadors all around the world known as Apostolic Nuncios. When a bishop retires or dies, other bishops submit a list of candidates to their nation's designated nuncio. The nuncio goes over that list, interviews all the candidates, and makes his own decision as to who should fill that vacancy. The nuncio then goes to the Vatican and offers his suggestion to the sitting pope, who either approves or vetoes that nomination, the latter of which would reset the whole process.

Now that you've been ordained a bishop, you're placed in charge of a diocese (a collection of local churches or parishes). Only the pope himself can appoint you to the next level in the Church hierarchy: that of the Cardinalate, or College of Cardinals. As a cardinal, your chief duty is to elect a new pope when the current pontiff dies or retires, in what is called a "papal conclave," though there are additional duties that cardinals have between conclaves.

This brings us to the papal election. Since the mid-13th century, cardinals have gone into seclusion to avoid possible outside interference and/or prolonged deadlocks. The term "conclave" comes from the Latin phrase "cum clave" meaning "with a key." In present day, cardinals are locked in the Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace.

There are 200-plus cardinals in the world, but not all of them are allowed to vote for the new pope. Electors must be younger than 80; a maximum of 120 cardinals are allowed to participate in voting. To ensure secrecy, the cardinals and their assistants take an oath under penalty of excommunication, the Sistine Chapel is swept for listening devices, and all electronic devices are temporarily confiscated.

Cardinals vote only once on the first day of the conclave and four times each day thereafter, twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon, until one of those electors achieves a two-thirds majority of all ballots cast. If a round of balloting does not meet the two-thirds threshold, all the ballots, tally sheets and notes are taken to a small stove off the chapel and burned, causing black smoke to rise from the chimney vent. If a cardinal receives two-thirds of the vote and accepts the position, the ballots and documents are burned in the same stove, but with added chemicals to ensure white smoke is seen billowing from the chimney vent, signaling to the world that a new pope has been elected.

The new pope is then led to a balcony in a room located next to the Sistine Chapel and proclaimed the newly elected pontiff. It is at this time that the new pope's "papal name" is made known to the world.

(Ed. Note: Stephen II died of stroke three days after his election in March 752, but prior to his consecration as a bishop. However, a registration of popes from the Catholic Church does not feature Stephen II on its list, because the Code of Canon Law specifies that consecration marks the real beginning on a new pope's reign.)